ISTANBUL, Turkey - Somali president, Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo has arrived in Istanbul for an unannounced visit on Friday after wrapping up his three-day trip to Italy, Garowe Online reports.

During his stay, president Farmajo held a closed-door meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at Vahdettin Pavilion in the city's Uskudar district which lasted for nearly two hours.

"A pleasure to meet with President Erdogan in Istanbul today [Friday]. We discussed how to further strengthen our strong bilateral relations through increased Win-Win cooperation," Faramajo tweeted.

No further details about the talks between the two leaders were provided.

He added that Turkey is a valuable partner in Somalia's development and progress after Ankara has provided more than $500 million in financial aid to the long-chaotic Horn of Africa country since 2011.

In September last year, Turkey which maintains close ties with Qatar opened its largest overseas military base in the Somali capital Mogadishu with the capacity to train more than 1,500 Somali troops at a time.

After his Turkey trip, Somali president and his delegation left for Kampala, Uganda for a state visit and is expected to meet with Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, according to the sources.

Uganda was the first country to send soldiers to Somalia, spearheading the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) in 2007 to fight Shebab insurgents and protect the internationally-backed government in Mogadishu. 

GAROWE ONLINE